The London Athletics Meet has sold out in each of the past three years and drawn 55,000 people from across the country, but tickets costing £95 for the usually cheaper parts of the track have pushed families and fans out of the stadium. That’s the neat little trick of elite sport under capital: the crowd is welcome, as long as it can pay. BBC News reported earlier this week that those prices were pricing people out, and an analysis showed the seats were among the most expensive of all 15 cities in the elite league.
The Price of Access
The debate now circling the London Diamond League is not really about athletics. It’s about who gets to enter, who gets to watch, and which venue best serves the business of spectacle. The London Stadium, which cost £750m to build and regenerate, has become the flagship annual athletics event’s home after the London 2012 Olympics, while campaigners are pushing for a revived athletics venue at Crystal Palace in south London. There is, however, no indication the UK leg of the meeting would move from London Stadium. The machinery stays put unless the organisers decide otherwise.
Phil Wicks, a former GB distance runner, remembered Usain Bolt and other athletics stars at Crystal Palace, where the London Diamond League and its predecessor, the London Grand Prix, were held until 2011. He said: "It was relatively cheap, it was right on the trackside for a big, televised international meet of athletics. I was a student at the time and would go each year." Wicks said Crystal Palace prices were cheaper, even allowing for inflation, than many London Diamond League seats today. Now a father of two, he estimates it would cost about £300 plus travel and food to go on a family trip to this year's meet. He said organisers can justify the cost because they are filling the stadium and entertainment in the capital is expensive. He also said Crystal Palace is "a complete wreck now - it's falling apart."
Bricks, Budgets, and Boardrooms
Plans for a newly developed Crystal Palace National Sports Centre have recently been submitted to Bromley Council, backed by funding from London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan for the £130m project and with contractors Morgan Sindall on board. A decision on the application is expected within weeks. If a commercial partner can be found to fund the stadium part of the development, Crystal Palace's appeal as a venue for major track and field meets could come roaring back to life. Campaigners estimate the stadium would cost £100m-£150m to be ready by 2030. The language is all regeneration and partnership, but the reality is familiar: public money, private contractors, and a venue’s future hanging on whether a commercial backer shows up.
London Diamond League organisers Athletic Ventures, which includes governing body UK Athletics, have shown no sign they want to budge from London Stadium, a venue many GB stars love. A source close to London Stadium said it is well-connected and holds more than double the number of fans that a redeveloped 25,000-seat Crystal Palace would, and that the seating design has been improved. A senior athletics source said any speculation regarding other venues is irrelevant and London Stadium continues to be an excellent venue for the sport, while bosses support investment in athletics facilities across the country. The message from above is clear enough. The venue is excellent, the speculation is irrelevant, and the public can keep paying.
Former sprint coach John Powell, who is chair of the Crystal Palace Sports Partnership, said there have been "more ups and downs than a rollercoaster" in the campaign to revive the venue. Speaking trackside at Crystal Palace, he said the grandstands and shuttered scoreboard are almost silenced and yearning to return to their former glory. Powell said there is tangible excitement about the venue's future and that stars should feel there is as much "hallowed turf" there as over in the Olympic Park. He said: "For me, the [London Diamond League] venue is wrong. Yes, it's got the Stratford transport hub nearby but it's a good 15-20 minute walk from there."
Who Gets to Move, Who Gets Left Behind
Powell said Crystal Palace is "the most accessible multi-sport venue in the country by an absolute street" and added: "Look how much it costs to set up Stratford before you have a single spectator in the ground - Crystal Palace can be ready and waiting with appropriate investment." He said younger generations would benefit from being able to train on the same track that global athletics stars race on. "Upgrade the stadium, bring the Diamond League back and let's have athletics in its true British athletics home," he said. The pitch is simple: invest, upgrade, revive. But the decision still sits with the same structures that turned a public sporting event into a premium product in the first place.
The discussion around Crystal Palace's suitability is unlikely to go away if the plans are approved. The article says there is no indication the UK leg of the Diamond League would move from London Stadium, but if it did, it wouldn't necessarily stay in the capital. Birmingham's Alexander Stadium, which has about 18,000 capacity without temporary seating, has had significant investment and will host the European Championships in August. This summer's Commonwealth Games are being held in Glasgow's Scotstoun Stadium. The article also points to the 25,000-seat Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, built for the World Student Games in 1991 and demolished in 2013 thanks to maintenance costs and public funding budgets.
Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny told BBC News, "the London Stadium is the site of the 2012 Olympic Games and as such one of the sport's most iconic modern venues." That’s the official script: iconic, modern, connected, excellent. Meanwhile, the seats climb in price, the public pays for the infrastructure, and the question of who athletics is actually for keeps getting answered with a card machine. The article says it is perhaps a marathon, not a sprint, to establish whether the venue can remain a fitting home for major athletics events for years to come.